


Drive

by KateHunter



Category: Life (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 07:04:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10680192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KateHunter/pseuds/KateHunter
Summary: Dani lets Charlie play his music every time they're in the car. One song pops up more often than anything else.





	Drive

**Author's Note:**

> Based on 'Drive' by Gretta Ray.

Drive

 

Charlie Crews was in a new phase. Instead of trying to catch up on what he’d already missed, which was not something he ever put a great deal of effort into, he was now discovering the newest thing. He would hassle Rachel for music, was now up to date on the latest television. Dani was also up to date on the latest television, even if she didn’t know who Dolores was or why she was a robot. Charlie, fulfilled by his total destruction of Roman, now had to whole world to focus his obsessive energy on instead of the worst parts of it. Dani had become so sick of Charlie’s natter about television she started letting him play his new favourite songs in the car. Over the past week she’d noticed one creep up more often than the others.

At first she’d just focused on the chorus, the woman crooned over and over;  
“Do you wanna, do you wanna drive?”  
By the second day she knew the chorus by heart. By the end of the week she was singing it on her way home, alone in the car. By the second week she wondered if Charlie was trying to tell her something else. But she dismissed that almost as soon as she thought it. They were joined at the hip. Dani spent more time with Charlie than anyone else. Another year together and she’d have spent more time with Charlie Crews than anyone else in the world.  
She liked the tree bit though.

Another two days passed and Dani started to focus on the story of the song. The woman was in love with someone she couldn’t quite have. Someone she can’t help but fantasize about falling inward and outward at the sight of her. Someone so enigmatic she had to write it all down and share it with the world and wrap it up in the thing she and her partner did everyday.  
Charlie’s feet would never fit on the dash.

  
The stakeout was always a real test of a partnership. Stuck together in car for who knows how long, constantly vigilant because anything could mean something. Of course constant vigilance didn’t preclude absolute boredom. Both Dani and Charlie had suffered through some pretty awful nights, together and apart. Tonight, however, sitting in their squad car, the only sounds the could be heard were the ambient sounds and Charlie’s knife cutting through his apple. Its sticky spray hot Dani's wrist. She resisted the urge to lick it off. Charlie had stopped needing to talk around hour three and so the two of them watching the outside in comfortable silence. In some far off place in her heart this easy silence was all she needed. 

Another drive home, alone, on the busy LA streets and Dani had the song playing of her own volition. She’d ended it with Tidwell the day he’d been told he’d be transferred out of the precinct to cover up the fact he’d let a detective, that detective, go rouge. That detective had been suspended for 3 weeks before the PR storm surrounding Roman Nevikov hit too much of the fan. That detective had come back to work with hours of new music and one song that Dani couldn’t figure out the meaning off. She liked the part about addiction, even if it was a little self-indulgent.

 

Charlie was playing the song again. It had been a rough day. A double murder, about money, again. Dani had noticed certain moods had come to mean certain songs. Rough days usually got rock music, the perfect thing to be angry with and to keep them awake so they could make it home. But this morning was Drive. The pair of them had two days off, it was 7am and the sun seemed like a gold orb on the horizon. “We could just keep going. Not go back to the precinct, not file this report, not drink anymore terrible coffee.”  
“Crews.”  
“Reese.”  
“We can’t. We have…”  
“What? We have this job? We have this city?”  
Dani was too tired for this, this song was too slow. She pulled off the highway and parked down under an overpass. She didn’t know why, she didn’t understand why her partner was saying this.  
“Reese?”  
“We have people, Crews.”  
“We almost died, Reese. I almost got you killed. I have money, you and your mother can just go. This place has taken enough from you.” Charlie had unbuckled his seatbelt, twisted his long torso towards her. He was speaking fast, pale blue eyes practically twinkling in the morning sun. Dani shut that thought down as quickly as she could, but a lump had already formed in her throat. Charlie took a deep breath.  
“Think about it. Everyday we see the worst of what people are capable of and every time we get one of them for it there’s another one doing something worse.”  
“It’s our job, Crews. We signed up for this.” Dani said as she gripped the steering wheel. She couldn’t read him when he was saying what he wanted. She always understood what he never said but she couldn’t understand his words now.  
“Haven’t we done our job? I think we’ve both done our time.” Charlie had turned the song down but Dani was sure it was on repeat.

_“All of your love is way too much for me to ask of you”_

“Crews…”  
“We’ve done our time, Dani.” His voice was quiet, his eyes closed, head resting back.  
Dani got out of the car. She was so tired. She couldn’t figure out if her partner was being serious. She just wanted to crawl into bed. She wanted a drink and she wanted to know why that damn song meant so much to him. She heard the other door shut and she turned to see  
Charlie walking over to her. He’d taken his suit jacket off and was rolling up the sleeves of his blue shirt. Dani couldn’t take it anymore, she exploded with pent up anger.

“Why is it playing? Why is it always playing!? Everyday, somewhere, you play that stupid song! Has it infected you? We can’t just drive away! We can’t just leave.” Dani yelled.  
Crews let the words hang in the air for a couple of seconds.  
“It made me think of you when I first heard it.”  
“What?”  
“Drive. When I first heard it, it reminded me of you. And I just, I wanted you to like it too.” He had his arms open, fingers twitching, reaching. A stark contrast to Dani who was all folded up against the car.  
“I do like it.” The words just slipped out of Dani’s mouth. The wave of embarrassment she expected didn’t come.  
“Good. I’m glad.” Charlie turned away from her, surveying the area. Dani saw his shoulders relax. She felt the lump in her throat move.  
“Crews. We can’t just leave.”  
“We don’t have to go together but I think we should go.”  
“We’re cops, Crews. It’s who we are. How can we just leave that?”  
“I don’t know. But...”  
They were silent for a minute. The woman sang in the background:

 _“I’ve come to find whenever in your presence I am present_  
_Imagination has me seated at your side_  
_It's nothing short of bliss_  
_It's the best thing in the worst way_  
_Loving you like this, loving you like this”_

“Where would we go?” Dani asked Charlie’s back.  
“Anywhere else.” He was looking up towards the sky.

He’d killed for her. He’d killed for him and he’d killed for this city. Dani wondered if the Zen thing was finally letting all of that through. It was the best thing in the worst way. Dani shut her eyes. It was the best thing in the worst way. Dani saw her partner getting into that monster’s car to save her. It was the best thing in the worst way. Dani saw Charlie standing in his orange grove, sun shining on his face, waiting for her to pick him up. How many times had that happened? Dani driving to him, collecting him, taking him to somewhere awful. It was the best thing in the worst way. With him, always with him. He’d changed her, let her heal the way she needed, let himself heal the way he needed. Together they’d built this thing, just the two of them. It was more than either of them had ever been able to create separately. It was everything to Dani, he was everything.

“Crews. Crews!” Charlie turned around to face Dani.  
“Say you never met a woman that made you feel this alive.”  
Charlie stared at her, the same stare he’d had in the orange grove. That all encompassing stare that meant it was finally safe. That stare, that look that was just for her. Dani held her breath.  
Dani started to say it again but Charlie beat her to it.  
“Dani Reese, I have never met a woman that makes me feel as alive as you do.”

Dani pushed herself off the car. Charlie had just enough time to realise what was happening when she pulled him down to a kiss. Their lips met, moved in perfect time together. Dani only pulled away when she couldn’t take it anymore. Charlie licked his lips as he walked her back to the car. Dani was about push herself up onto her tiptoes when Charlie ran his hands over hips, her butt, and gripped her thighs with his expansive hands. Dani could feel the muscles in his shoulders working as he lifted he up, pinning her between him and the car. Her hand hesitated, fluttered against his face as held her. She pulled him in slowly, like in an old movie, which was totally at odds with the fact that her partner had her legs wrapped around him and they were up against an official LAPD vehicle. He hesitated, Dani’s hand rested on his neck, fingers feeling his pulse, thumb dragging at his lips.  
Charlie pulled one hand away and pulled his gun and holster off his belt, and tossed them into the car. He repeated the act with Dani’s gun. She knew what it meant, what he was saying.  
Now Dani was impatient, she pulled his face to hers. This time when their lips met, Dani was ready. She knew her heart would explode and contract every second, that her body would want more and more of him, that every bit of her would feel right and safe and present. She wrapped her legs tighter around Charlie as he pushed his tongue into her mouth. She didn’t know how much time had passed but Charlie hadn’t let her slip an inch. Dani’s splayed her fingers over Charlie’s reddening lips, pulling his bottom lip down with her thumb.  
“I think we should talk about this.” Charlie said.  
“Talk about what, how this is your fault?” Dani grinned as she ran her hands down the buttons of Charlie’s shirt. When she popped the first one open Charlie squeezed one of her thighs.  
“Not here.”  
“No one can see us, Crews. Where’s your sense of adventure?”  
“You are my sense of adventure.” Charlie darted his head forward and kissed his partner again.  
“I know a place where no one will see us. Ready?”  
Charlie let Dani unwrap her legs and set her down gently. He stepped back to let her turn around and pressed a hand to the small of her back and a kiss to her neck as he opened the door for her.  
“Where are we going?” Dani had one hand on the roof and one had the door, her body mostly involuntarily pushing against back against Charlie.  
“I thought we could make a new memory of that ‘shower’.” Charlie’s lips were still pressed to her neck, she shivered as that day came back to her and Charlie breath tickled her skin.  
“I think it’s about time we did that.” Dani turned her face up towards Charlie’s and kissed him again.  
“Do you want to drive?”  
“No, Reese, I want you to.”


End file.
